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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24346129">The Truth Is Out</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/starburn_ngc2440/pseuds/starburn_ngc2440'>starburn_ngc2440</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Supernatural</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst with a Happy Ending, Case Fic, Castiel Loves Dean Winchester, Castiel and Dean Winchester in Love, Dean Winchester Loves Castiel, Dean Winchester is Bad at Feelings, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Truth Spells</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 08:07:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,845</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24346129</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/starburn_ngc2440/pseuds/starburn_ngc2440</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam and Dean are hunting the Greek Goddess of truth, Aletheia, who makes people need to act on their deepest desires. If they don't, those desires eat them from the inside out. Literally. The only problem is: can Dean keep his desire to confess to Cas in check without dying?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Castiel/Dean Winchester</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>156</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Truth Is Out</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>okay so.. I wrote this all in my notes on my phone, and I just finished it so I'm posting at 2 am. No beta we die like men lmao!! also sorry if I tell more than I show I'm so used to writing essays</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Dean Winchester was confused as to how the hell he gotten into this situation. But he was not surprised that he had.</p><p>It had started three days ago, at the bunker. Sam had brought over his computer and told Dean that he had found a case in a nearby town, Hays, which was not even two hours away. The basis was that people were showing up dead, and looking as if they had been eaten from the inside out. Dean had called that weird enough, and they hit the road. </p><p>Once they got there, it was all routine, and it seemed as if this was going to be a regular, cut-and-dry job. They got a room at the Rye Motel, dressed up in their Fed suits and headed over to the coroner's office to see the victims. The reports did not do the bodies justice, to say the least. Sam managed to stomach looking into the victim's ribcage, and on the back of the rib right above his heart, was a symbol depicting several interlocking circles. Dean checked the other two victims and confirmed that the symbol was on the others' ribs. </p><p>After a couple hours of searching the internet at the motel, Sam found something.<br/>
"So get this," Sam said while turning around his computer so Dean could see, "The symbol? It represents Aletheia, the goddess of truth."<br/>
"Wait, didn't we already waste that chick?" Dean said with a confused expression.</p><p>"Well, not exactly. We killed Veritas, the Roman goddess of truth, not her. They're pretty much the same goddess to be honest, except Aletheia is more about being true to yourself than others. So, everyone who is affected needs to be true to themselves, to act on their deepest desires. That could be as innocent as wanting an ice pop for a kid, but for an adult, it could be other things. Things they can't always act on. And, well, we've already been to the morgue, you know how it ends when they don't act on them. Their desires literally ate them from the inside out." Sam replied gravely while Dean sat on his bed. "Although, there's another way she's different from Veritas... look, right here, the spell to kill her is a lot more complex then just dog's blood and a knife. That's some heavy duty spellwork that we have to do, with ingredients that look super hard to find."</p><p>"Damn. How are we gonna get a... what's that? An eye of Christ?" Dean said, squinting at the computer from across the room. "I mean, dragon's blood we have in the trunk, but where the hell are we supposed to find a frickin' eye of Christ?" Dean said indignantly, flopping backwards onto the mattress.</p><p>"Well, we're going to have to try to find all the ingredients before someone else kills themselves or gets killed," Sam shot back, "maybe try to call Cas?" He suggested.</p><p>"Okay, let me see if he's available." Dean said, picking up his phone. He put it on speaker, and the dial tone sounded before it started to ring. After three rings, he picked up.</p><p>"Hello, Dean."</p><p>Dean smiled fondly, "Hey, buddy. We've got a bit of a situation here. There's this chick, actually I should probably say goddess, Aletheia. She's the goddess of truth. She's making people need act on their desires, but they don't, so they die."</p><p>"Yes, I am familiar with her," Cas replied in his usual monotone voice.</p><p>"Good, because she's ganked three people here already. We've done some digging on ways to kill her, but the spell is pretty... complicated, to say the least. Do you think you could come over here and help out?" </p><p>"Of course. I'll be there as soon as I can. Where are you?" Cas said the question like a statement, but there was genuine affection behind it. </p><p>"We're in Hays, Kansas at the Rye Motel on-" before Dean could get the name of the street out, Cas popped into existence, sitting on the bed next to him. Right next him. Leaning over him in fact.</p><p>"Woah! Cas! Back up!" Dean said, eyes wide, placing a hand on Cas's chest and pushing him so he was further than half a foot from him and sitting up on the bed. "Personal space, dude." He said, although he said it while looking at Cas's lips and with a sweet, affectionate smlie on his face.</p><p>Sam cleared his throat.</p><p>Dean jumped and took his hand off Cas's chest, looking guilty. Sam smiled reassuringly in his direction. Sam had been observing Cas and Dean for years, and he had more than glimpsed the 'profound bond', to quote Cas. </p><p>"I apologize." Cas said softly, looking at Dean. He then froze, staring out into space for a solid thirty seconds while Sam and Dean watched him. "I... There is something else. I can sense longing, you know this,-"</p><p>"No, I didn't! You can what!?" Dean replied, looking a little panicked.</p><p>"Oh," Cas said, looking in Dean's direction, "well, I can sense longing, not so much what people long for, but how much they long for it. It's not too specific, just a general feeling. When I'm around you two, there is always a pretty strong sense of longing from both of you. For Sam it's always for something like comfort, or normalcy, which is expected. And from you, Dean, it's the things that Sam wants, too, but it's predominantly longing for a romantic relationship" Dean made a sound that resembled choking, "but I can never tell who with."</p><p>"A moment ago, the longing just got a lot stronger from Dean, but I couldn't pinpoint what the longing was for." Throughout the explanation, Dean had started to blush, and Cas had started to stare at him in his usual fashion. That is, intensely.</p><p>"Oh, uh okay. That's a really cool ability, Cas! Must be hard to get swamped with so many people wanting so many things." Sam said, his eyes shifting between Dean and Cas, "...Anyway, we could use your help on this case, this goddess is turning out to be pretty hard to kill. We could use your help getting some of the ingredients. We need dragon's blood, Earth smoke, an eye of Christ and an everlasting friendship. Do you know where you could get those? Because we're stumped." </p><p>"Oh, yes. Those should prove very easy. I'll be back in a minute." Cas said, and then there was a flapping of wings that made the case files on the table flutter, and he was gone. </p><p>He reappeared exactly a minute later with an armfull of plants.</p><p>"What are those?" Dean asked, "Where's the ingredients?</p><p>"These are the ingredients. All of those names were just pseudonyms for plants. Dragon's blood is calamus, earth smoke is fumitory, eye of Christ is germander speedwell, and everlasting friendship is goosegrass." As he said the names of the herbs, he set them on the table, "They were not hard to find. All I had to do was go to a field that would have taken you approximately nine and a half minutes to drive to." </p><p>"... Oh, well, thank you anyway Cas." Sam said in reply to Cas's snarky remark. "Okay, great! now all we need is her blood to complete the spell. We have the bronze bowl and we're all stocked up on matches, right? Dean?"</p><p>"Yeah, we've got them in the trunk." Dean said without even glancing in Sam's direction, but instead staring intently at the goosegrass stuck to Cas's lapel. He got up from his seat, walked across the room and closer to Cas than he strictly needed to be, and he gently picked the goosegrass off of his collar. Cas looked up at him with confusion and awe. Then Dean's eyes became very wide all of a sudden and he took several steps back. "I.. I'm so sorry, I don't know what that was."</p><p>"It's okay Dean, thank you for getting it." Cas said with a small, slightly sad smile. Sam watched this play out, and then realization crossed his face.</p><p>"Dean, you must have wanted to do that. You always tell me that you never really suppress what you want to do, but Aletheia's radius makes people do what they really want but haven't been acting on. So, I guess since you don't usually suppress what you want, when you were compelled to go over to Cas you didn't even think about it." Sam said.</p><p>"Y-Yeah, that must have been it, I just wanted to get that stupid goosegrass stuff off him, so I did..." Dean said, trailing off. Dean started to think that maybe with this curse he wouldn't be able to hide the feelings he'd had for Cas since they became friends. If he had to act on his deepest desires, the most prominent one was the desire to hold Cas and keep him safe, to be with him forever. He wondered if that desire would eat him up inside before they were able to kill Aletheia. He sat back on the bed, contemplating all of this.</p><p>Sam looked over at Cas, who was still standing by the table covered in herbs looking kind of sad. Sam decided to change the subject.<br/>
"Okay, well, now we have all of the ingredients we can get right now. The final one is her blood, so let's find out where she is before more people die."</p><p>Sam surfed the web, and found out that Aletheia liked to be where people were the most truthful, but also where people have fulfilled their desires. "So, a courthouse would work. I mean, think about it. People are under oath, but also, they gave in to their desires- the perps have murdered, stolen, cheated on their spouses, they've done what they wanted to. She likes to force people to tell the truth, so it might be worth a shot to ask around for new judges, just to see. Plus, there's a courthouse less than ten minutes from here."</p><p>"That sounds perfect, let's hit the road! She's susceptible to silver, right? Get the silver rings out of the trunk, that way when we shake her hand, it'll burn her. Go put your Fed suit on, Sam," Dean said, and then glanced over at Cas. "Cas, dude, take off the trenchcoat."</p><p>"Why should I?" Cas said, looking adorably confused in Dean's eyes.</p><p>"Because you look like a serial killer. Just- here, let me," Dean said, standing up from the bed to walk over to Cas again. He grabbed Cas's lapels and pushed the coat off his shoulders, guiding Cas's arms gently out of the sleeves. Cas seemed to just go with it, staring at Dean the while he completed the tender action. When the coat was off, Dean brushed Cas's suit jacket and straightened his tie before looking back up to Cas's face. They both blushed and Dean stepped away, realising he was closer then he needed to be yet again, but this time stepping away caused his stomach to give an awful wrench. He backed away further, almost tripping on the edge of the bed as he grabbed his Fed suit and went into the bathroom to change.</p><p>Once he was out of the bathroom and well-dressed, Dean took out the bronze bowl and put in the herbs. He seale it with some Saran wrap and then handed it over to Sam, who put it in his 'man purse' as Dean so often described it. Dean looked over at Cas, "You ready to go," He had do fight down the urge to say 'babe', causing another sharp pain in his stomach, "buddy?" </p><p>"Yes. I'll meet you there." Castiel responded. </p><p>"Oh no you don't!" Dean said grabbing onto Castiel's arm before he could zip out of the room, "you're gonna ride shotgun, no getting out of it this time, no complaints."</p><p>"Fine. It is inconvenient, but if you insist." He said. It was probably meant to sound indignant, and the face he was making was probably meant to be a scowl, but he just looked a little pleased at getting to sit next to Dean. </p><p>Dean dragged him by the arm out the door and to the car, Sam in tow behind them. Dean only just stopped himself from slipping his hand into Cas's while they walked across the lot. This caused another painful twist in his stomach, this time strong enough that he let go of Cas's arm. He had to stop to clutch his stomach so he wouldn't lose his breakfast. </p><p>Cas's face immediately became very concerned as Dean folded over on himself. Cas crouched down in front of him, and put his hand on Dean's face. "Dean, Dean, are you okay?" </p><p>Dean really wanted to lean into Cas's touch, but he stopped himself, and that caused the pain to double. I tore though his stomach and made him fall to his knees and against Cas, who brought a hand up to his back to steady him. "I'm fine, Cas," Dean said, voice breaking on the angel's name. "It only hurts a little." In reality, despite Dean's incredibly high pain tolerance, it hurt far more than a little.</p><p>"Woah, Dean, hey, hey, it's okay dude. We can't beat Aletheia if you're dead. Whatever you're stopping yourself from doing, just do it so we can go to the courthouse and kill this bitch. Then you can go back to stowing your crap like you always do." Sam said with a scowl.</p><p>"I can't," Dean said, still being propped up with Cas's hands on his shoulders. As soon as the words were out another sharp stab of pain hit him in the gut.</p><p>"Come on, just do it. What are you stopping yourself from doing? Yelling at one of us? Do you not want to be touched and just can't say it? I think Cas can handle it if you tell him to back off." At Sam's words, Cas shuffled away a little, wary that that would be what Dean asked him to do. But that action just made Dean let out a horrible, twisted whine. Cas shuffled a little closer again.</p><p>"It's not that, it's just... oh, fucking hell." Dean exclaimed, the pain reaching a breaking point, and wrapped his arms around Cas's waist, pulling him closer and tucking his head into Cas's neck. Cas made a small noise of surprise and lifted his hands for a few seconds, causing Dean to tense up a little. Cas looked up at Sam, and with a little nod of encouragement from him, firmly and enthusiastically wrapped one of his arms around Dean's shoulders and threaded his other hand into Dean's hair. Dean then relaxed, finally giving in and letting the pain dissipate with a smile on his face. </p><p>Once his guts no longer felt like they were being ripped out, Dean pulled away. "Sorry if that made you uncomfortable Cas, but I'm okay now."</p><p>"It didn't. At all. It was... good, Dean. Was really that all you wanted to do? You are allowed to hug me, you know. I am not opposed to it." Cas said, smiling.</p><p>"Oh. Uh, okay," Dean said, slightly bewildered that Cas didn't mind the hug, since they only usually do that when they just realized the other is alive after believing the opposite. The hug, however, wasn't all that he wanted to do, but he had a feeling that some of the things he wanted to do (hold Cas's hand, take him on dates, kiss him, tell him he loves him), Cas would be opposed too. But he kept his peace. "Well, I'm alright now, so we can go over to the courthouse and finally gank this chick."</p><p>"Agreed," Sam said, "Let's go."</p><p>Cas stood up and held out a hand to pull Dean up. Dean grabbed it gratefully and stood with Cas's help, still a little weak at the knees from pain and head still spinning from the adrenaline and endorphins from the long hug. After Cas helped him up, he pulled his hand away, which caused Dean's gut to turn a little, but he ignored it for now. They all piled into the Impala, Sam in the back for once, and headed East to the courthouse.<br/>
____________________________________________ </p><p>When they arrived, they all made sure they had their silver rings on, and headed into the building. They walked up to the front desk, and Sam held up his fake FBI badge and introduced himself as Agent Neal, and Cas and Dean as Agents Calburn and Haker. Dean asked the kind faced woman behind the desk where they could find the judges, and she pointed them down the hallway with the instruction to open "the third door on the right. It's labeled the 'Judge's Lounge'. If you hit the restrooms, you've gone too far!" Dean smiled and thanked her for her help, and proceeded to march off down the hall with Cas and Sam in tow. Once they reached the Judge's Lounge, Sam rapped smartly on the door, and it was answered by a man in his mid sixties wearing judge's robes. </p><p>"Hello sirs, what can I help you with?" He asked with a small smile.</p><p>"Hello, your Honour, we're here from the Federal Bureau of Investigation," Cas said while Sam and Dean flashed their badges, "and we would just like to ask you and the rest of the judges some routine questions, nothing to be worried about."</p><p>"Of course, please, come in."</p><p>Sam, Dean and Cas stepped into the room. It was a standard lounge, obviously used for the brief spaces between working. It had a vending machine with very little left to vend and a coffee dispenser in one corner, and a semicircle of ratty couches facing a small TV. It was surrounded by a wire cage, and was blaring a college football game. There were three other people in the room; a woman of about 50 with graying hair and a soft face, a short man with a dull yellow tie and teeth to match, and a young woman with severe features reading a book in the corner. All three of them looked up, the older woman and the man smiled, but the young woman looked put off by the boys' presence. </p><p>"Hello, your... Honours," Dean said oh so eloquently, "we're from the FBI to ask you a few routine questions</p><p>"Hello! I'm judge Rotherman," said the older woman, her kind smile still in place and her hand extended for a handshake, "It is good to make your acquaintance, agents...?"</p><p>"Neal, Calburn and Haker," Sam replied, shaking her hand firmly and watching her expression for pain from the silver ring. But there was no reaction. So, not her. He turned to the (regrettably) smiling face of the short man, who introduced himself as judge Daily, and shook his hand, not expecting a reaction to the silver and not getting one. He moved on to shake the hand of the judge who let them in, who said announced himself as judge Harrison, and got zero reaction from him too. "We just wanted to ask you about the recent murders." </p><p>"Oh, yes. Horrible, aren't they? It's such a shame, those people.. those poor youngsters," judge Rotherman said, the smile dropping from her face. Dean's eyes were locked on the woman on the other side of the room, who was looking like she wanted to leave the room more every second. </p><p>"Well, we will start by questioning you separately. Just a few questions about recent cases that were brought to your attention," Cas said, and noticing the direction Dean was looking in, he locked his eyes on the woman in the corner too. "What is your name, ma'am?" he asked.</p><p>"Judge Ziton." came the curt reply. Her face looked like she had just eaten a lemon, distaste plain as day.</p><p>"Okay, judge Ziton, would you step outside with us? We'd like to ask you a few questions." Dean said with a condescending smile, stepping over to were she sat. The woman, who could only be Aletheia, stood up only when Dean grabbed her arm. He basically dragged her out of the room, and Cas followed behind. Sam gave the rest of the judges a smile that said 'I'm sorry about my partner, he can be a little intense at times' and closed the door behind him. They walked down the hall until they found an empty room, and then dragged the goddess inside.</p><p>"Aletheia." Dean said, once the door was closed and the three men and the goddess were alone.</p><p>"Yeah, and what's it to you?" she said with irritation, far less formal than the 'agents' were expecting. She sounded more like a bratty teenager than a millennia old goddess. </p><p>"Oh, well, I don't know. The fact that you've been killing people all over town is sort of a big part of our vexation." Sam replied for Dean, who looked as if he already had the beginning of a curse word on his tongue. </p><p>"It's not my problem that no one is true to themselves around here! I'm just giving them a little bit of incentive. A little pain for when they don't act on it. You know what I'm talking about, don't you, Agent Haker? I know that isn't your real name, by the way."</p><p>Dean stared angrily down at her, and seemed very tempted to kill her right then, but he stopped himself. "Hello, I'm Dean," he said snarkly back. "Now,c an you stop this spell or power or whatever the fuck it is you have going on so that this whole town doesn't die?" Dean asked through clenched teeth.</p><p>"Oh, it's not the whole town, sweetheart. I pick who gets to be truthful myself. You know, the people who want something really, really bad, but have never been honest with themselves about it. People who want to steal for the fun of it, or kill their spouse, or even tell their best friend they love them," she paused and shot a look at Dean. Cas didn't notice the look or Dean's wounded expression, but Sam did. Aletheia's expression turned grim. "It's not my fault that those poor assholes didn't act on their desires. I was trying to give them a push in the right direction, but they didn't listen to their gut. So I made their guts turn on them," she said with a twisted smile. </p><p>"I picked you, Dean. You're next. Even if you kill me, like I know you're planning to, it won't stop he spell. It'll eat you up, all because you're too scared to do what you have wanted to for who knows how many years. But if you tell the truth, it'll all be over. So, are you going to grow some balls and do it, or are we going to stand here and watch you die?" Sam and Cas looked between her and Dean like they were watching a tennis match for the majority of her monologue, but when she mentioned Dean dying, they rapidly gained looks of alarm.</p><p>"I think I'd rather watch you die," Dean said, grabbing her wrist, burning her with his silver ring as she struggled to get away from him. He gestured to Sam, who sprung into action, undoing the clasps on his bag and pulling out the bronze bowl full of the ingredients for the spell. Cas wrestled the Saran wrap off it and then handed it over to Dean. Dean held the bowl under her arm, and then gestured to Cas. Cas pulled out his knife and cut her wrist, letting her blood drip into the bowl. She struggled and shouted, trying to knock the bowl from Dean's grip unsuccessfully. "Say the spell, Sammy," Dean said in a controlled blank tone. </p><p>"Yeah, yeah okay," Sam stuttered out before fumbling for the piece of paper in his pocket that he had written to words on. "Epitrepste sto keno kai borei, na min vlapsete pote allo!" Sam chanted. The bronze bowl grew hotter in Dean's hand, glowing bright red. Aletheia screamed in agony, and disintegrated before their eyes, turning into a fine sand that blew across the room and faded into nothingness. </p><p>"Finally, jeez, that bitch was chatty." Dean said with a relieved look.</p><p>"Dean, she said she chose you, personally, and that the curse isn't broken even now that she's dead! That's not exactly great news, considering that if you don't tell the truth, you'll die! Please, you have to say or do something about this," Sam said desperately, "According to the autopsy report, about three hours after the victims started complaining about abdomen pains, their stomachs burst open and they died!"</p><p>"Dean, please, what is it? Please tell us! You can't die today, I won't let you." Cas said firmly, looking pleadingly at Dean. Dean wanted to tell him everything. He wanted to tell him that the day he met Castiel was one of the best days of his life. That he wouldn't be the man he was today without him. That he made him want to be a better person, to try harder to be good. He wanted to tell him that he loves him, that he has since they became friends. Dean wanted to tell Cas that he wants him for lazy Sunday mornings in the bunker, and for sitting around drinking shitty motel coffee, for hunting all the bad things the world has to offer, for facing their problems together. For ever. All of this welled up inside him. Dean needed to tell him.</p><p>He needed to, but he couldn't. He knew that Cas would never return his feelings. That Cas didn't want him for anything more than a friend, for a brother. He knew that this was the one thing he couldn't have. A wave of pain knocked him to his knees, almost making him black out, but he would rather die than hurt the man he loved by telling him that he was in love with him. Cas fell to his knees beside him, holding his shoulders so he wouldn't collapse all the way.</p><p>Dean vaguely registered Cas and Sam yelling though all of the pain washing over him. He heard: "Dean! Oh my God, please don't die! Whatever it is, it's okay, you can tell us! Cas, Cas can't you heal him?!" In Sam's frantic voice, followed by "I can't heal the spell, but maybe I can ease his pain enough that he can think straight enough to tell us," he felt a warm hand on his cheek, and then a small warmth, Castiel's grace, he realized. "I- It's not enough, it's not working. No, please, Dean! Don't die, you can't die like this." Wow, Cas sounds pretty desperate, Dean thought. I don't want him to be sad. But I can't tell him, because then he'll hate me. At least, if I die without telling him, he won't hate me. </p><p>"Please, Dean, please," Cas said, tears rolling down his cheeks. "I can't lose you."</p><p>"Dean, please, tell us, we don't want to lose you, come on, it's okay! Please!" Sam said, desperation and agony evident in his tone.</p><p>"Please, Dean," Cas said, Dean vision growing blurry around the edges as the pain rolled through him. As Dean started to close his eyes, Cas made one last-ditch, desperate attempt at healing Dean. </p><p>He kissed him.</p><p>Warmth flowed through Dean with Cas's grace, mending his stomach enough that he wasn't about to die from the pain. Enough that he was able to press his lips more firmly against Cas's. When Dean kissed him back properly, Cas pulled away, crying happy tears that Dean was okay, if at least for now.</p><p>Dean rested his forehead against Cas's, looking in incredibly happy and confused at the same time. "Cas. You- You kissed me? I don't understand-"</p><p>"I love you, Dean. I'm in love with you. I want you to know before you die. I'm sorry I can't take away the spell, I'm sorry I can't save you," Cas said before breaking down into sobs again. </p><p>"Hey, hey, it's okay," Dean said, "You love me? For real?"</p><p>"Yes, of course I do. I have since I pulled your soul out of hell and rebuilt you piece by piece. How could I not love you?"</p><p>"That's amazing, Cas," Dean said, the biggest smile on his face. "I didn't know. I though if I confessed to you, you would hate me and never want to be around me again, and I would rather die then let that happen. But now I know that you love me, I can finally say it. I love you, Cas. I love you so much. I'll never stop." </p><p>The pain in Dean's stomach stopped immediately, washing away like the tide going out. Dean held Cas against him, just happy to be able to. He smiled over Cas's shoulder at Sam, who had tears of relief spilling out from his eyes and down his cheeks.</p><p>"I'm okay now. I'm okay."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>if you looked up any of the plants or Latin or shit like that from this fic, congratulations! let's kiss.</p><p>I hope you liked it lmao, comments/criticism/kudos are really appreciated</p><p>EDIT:<br/>POV you are me reading this for the first time since I posted it: 👁️👄👁️ </p><p>it's been like seven months. damn.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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